rave: " ... . .")
"We've had a lot of superfans of the
album come," Chavkin said. "They sing
along. We get a lot of whooping."
Downstairs, the performers were
gathered, doing vigorous rhythmic clap-
ping. The show's swinging score, per-
formed onstage with instruments that
include cello, double bass, drums, gui-
tar, trombone, and train whistle, mixes
Americana and art rock.The perform-
ers were dressed accordingly, in De-
pression-era chic with contemporary
accents: Persephone (Amber Gray)
wore a chartreuse dress and held a mar-
ket bag full of flowers; the Fates (Lulu
Fall, Jessie Shelton, Shaina Taub)
evoked Gunne Sax meets Siouxsie
Sioux. Mitchell high-fived Orpheus
(Damon Daunno).
The cast huddled up and squatted
down, hands in. "Todd Sickafoose!"
Chavkin said to the music supervisor
and co-arranger. "I believe you are the
man to lead us in three breaths to-
night." Everyone took three loud, deep
breaths. "This thing began with some
ramshackle theatre shit, and beauty,
and really old-school storytelling
up in Vermont," Chavkin said. "And
that found its way to a CD, a piece of
vinyl, that touched people in so many
fuckin' beautiful ways, and that's why
we're all here in this huddle." Mitch-
ell said in a dreamy way that the goal
wasn't to make a "perfect audio doc-
ument." "Definitely not tryin' to go for
that," she said. "Just trying to capture
humans making music in a room."
"What time is it?" Chavkin said.
that someone had confronted Alex
Jones, a Trump supporter and conspir-
acy theorist whose Web site, Infowars,
has a large following. "He was spew-
ing, and the anti group was spewing
back at him," Bell said. (Later, Jones's
YouTube channel posted a video head-
lined "Alex Jones Attacked by Rabid
Commies.")
It was a confusing picture for some-
one who grew up in a country with one
major political party and no public
squares designated for protest. Zhang
snapped a photo of the fracas and then
had second thoughts about sharing it.
"I wouldn't post these pictures on
WeChat," a Chinese social network,
she said. "My parents would freak out."
Back on the Convention floor, Rep-
resentative Chris Collins, the first mem-
ber of Congress to endorse Trump, was
at the lectern: "I proudly represent west-
ern New York, which has been devas-
tated by unfair trade deals allowing
countries like China and Mexico to steal
our jobs, robbing our children of the
opportunity to live the American dream."
He thundered, "President Trump is
going to bring back our stolen jobs!"
Did this make Zhang uncomfortable?
"I'm O.K.," she said. "It's true---
a lot of manufacturing jobs are now
in China." What mystified her was
Trump's promise to bring the jobs back.
"If it's not China, it's still not going to
be the U.S. It's going to be in Vietnam
and other countries."
Zhang turned to a woman behind
her who wore a red-white-and-blue
sequinned cap, and said, "You have a
very nice outfit." The woman was a
physical therapist who originally sup-
ported Ben Carson but had warmed
to Trump's calls for a stronger military.
Zhang asked, "Do you think the
U.S. is being threatened by the rise of
China?"
"I wouldn't say the rise of China,"
the woman said. "The Islamic radical
terrorists are the biggest threat."
Zhang continued, "How about trade
issues with China?"
The woman studied her for a mo-
ment and smiled. "I know a lot of com-
panies that have gone to China and done
extremely well," she said. "It's refresh-
ing to have a new"---she paused, grop-
ing for the right word---"relationship."
---Evan Osnos
1
THE MUSICAL LIFE
BOOTLEG
R , the thirty-six-
year-old director of "Hadestown,"
the folk-opera reinvention of Orpheus
and Eurydice at New York Theatre
Workshop, says she "came up playing
sports." Before special performances,
she leads the cast in a hands-in cheer,
like a coach psyching up the team. On
her left forearm, below a biceps tattoo
of an armadillo, she has a lyre, for "Ha-
destown"; on her right forearm she
has a tattoo for "Natasha, Pierre & the
Great Comet of ," which she di-
rected O Broadway and will direct on
Broadway this fall; she has no tattoo,
currently, for "Small Mouth Sounds,"
now at the Pershing Square Signature
Center.
Outside the "Hadestown" stage door,
a few minutes before curtain on a re-
cent evening, Chavkin bumped into
Anaïs Mitchell, the show's thirty-five-
year-old writer and composer, who
had flown in from Vermont. "I just
got here!" Mitchell said. "I'm so lucky."
That night's performance was being
recorded for a live cast album: all
hands in.
"Hadestown" began in Vermont, in
. "The original was a D.I.Y. the-
atre project," Mitchell said. "It was a
lot of, like, wild cabin-fever Ver-
mont artists coming together, fringe
people who have chosen this o -
the-beaten-path life style---home-
steading, chickens, stacking their
own wood." The music grew more
complex over the years and on a stu-
dio album, released in ; Michael
Chorney, who plays guitar in the
show, was its primary arranger. On it,
Mitchell sings the part of Eurydice;
Justin Vernon, of Bon Iver, is Orpheus;
Ani DiFranco is Persephone; the
Haden Triplets, as the Fates, "laid
their tight sister harmonies down,"
Mitchell said. The album has fervent
devotees, as does the show. (Lin-Man-
uel Miranda, on his third night of
post-"Hamilton" freedom, tweeted a
Rachel Chavkin and Anaïs Mitchell
THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 1, 2016
17